Travis Head re-joins Sussex as County Championship captain

Sussex endured a difficult season, with Australia international Head short on runs – he failed to reach fifty in six County Championship games as the club finished bottom of Division Three

The Cricketer | 04/11/2021 at 10:12

Sussex have re-signed Travis Head as an overseas player – and as captain in red-ball cricket – for the 2022 season, adding much-needed experience to a youthful squad.

Head initially agreed to join the county in the winter of 2019, only for the pandemic to see his arrival deferred until 2021.

Sussex endured a difficult season, however, with the Australia international short on runs – he failed to reach fifty in six County Championship games as the club finished bottom of Division Three. Tom Haines, who enjoyed an exceptional personal campaign as the country’s leading run-scorer, skippered once Ben Brown was stood down for captaincy duties midway through the summer.

Head arrived late due to travel complications around the pandemic and the late finish to the Australian domestic summer, before having to depart early in order to return for the early start of the ongoing Sheffield Shield. Next year, though, he will arrive ahead of the County Championship campaign.

Head said: “I can’t wait to come back to Hove. There’s unfinished business for me and the squad as a whole, so I was very eager to come back, compete hard and perform well. I’m over the moon to be getting the opportunity to do that.

“I’m equally pleased to be captaining the Championship side and I want to lead from the front as we continue the journey to bring success back to the club.

“I built some really good relationships with the players and coaches last summer and that will set things up nicely for this new challenge. There’s some fine leaders at the club and I’ll be leaning on them as much as possible as we all work really hard to succeed as a group.

“It’ll be great to get over there right at the start of the season and set the tone for the four-day campaign and then build on that for the white-ball formats.”

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^{Travis Head struggled for runs at Hove in 2021}

He will be without Stiaan van Zyl, his fellow overseas player for 2021, who it was confirmed will not be returning, while Chris Jordan and Phil Salt became the latest senior players to leave Hove for other counties. Stuart Meaker and Mitchell Claydon have both retired, with Steven Finn and Fynn Hudson-Prentice brought in from Middlesex and Derbyshire, respectively, to bolster a squad that twice last season broke the record for the youngest-ever team fielded in the County Championship.

Sussex’s County Championship and 50-over head coach, Ian Salisbury, added: “Travis was incredible in the way he conducted himself last year, whether in the dressing room or on the field. He’s exactly the kind of person we want in our environment and around our youngsters.

“We’re very keen to make the most of that as well as harnessing his leadership experience with South Australia, and that makes him exactly the right choice to captain the Championship team next season.

“He is of course a supremely skilled cricketer as well. Travis himself has been very honest about how he struggled after missing the start of last season – it takes even the very best a bit of time to adjust to English conditions – but he worked really hard and by the end of his stay we started to see what he can offer.

“With that in mind, it was crucial that he was able to join us from the start in 2022. He’s a fine, fine player and this gives himself the best chance scoring plenty of runs for Sussex. I am delighted to have a player of his calibre joining us next season and so is everyone else at the club.”

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